KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Apparently it's just going to be Texas' destiny this season to be the "other.'' The "other'' Big 12 team with Final Four aspirations, and the "other'' program with the blue-chip recruiting class.However, it works in Texas' favor -- as well as the recruits' -- that their most highly-touted freshmen, guards Avery Bradley and J'Covan Brown, and swingman Jordan Hamilton, are also the "others'' on their own team. The fate of the team won't ride on them, the way Kentucky's will depend on John Wall and Co. No need so far for any of the Longhorn trio to save the day as Wall did in his very first collegiate game against Miami University.
What Bradley, Brown and Hamilton have done so far hasn't led the highlight shows, and that's good for Texas, because they have more than enough veteran players to handle that. And enough to handle actually steering the Longhorns out of the occasional ditch and back on course to victory. They are now 3-0 going into Tuesday night's final of the CBE Classic at Kansas City's Sprint Center, against Pittsburgh, and while there was never any reason to believe that they wouldn't eventually handle Iowa, the winless and increasingly overmatched Hawkeyes did throw a scare into them in Monday's nightcap.
When things did get dicey, it was Texas seniors Damion James and Dexter Pittman, who set the tone coach Rick Barnes wanted: more defensive focus, less offensive recklessness. The 17 straight points Texas scored early in the second half, to erase a brief three-point lead and pave the way to an 85-60 cruise, were generated by Pittman's and Jones' utter dominance in the middle at both ends.
But the youngsters ended up being the statistical beneficiaries, which is fine with all concerned until Bradley, Brown and Hamilton really figure out all of what they have to do to help Texas fulfill its promise for this season.
"That's why we have the luxury of going to veterans,'' Barnes said Monday night, pointing out that when they needed that defensive effort to tilt the momentum back their way to start the second half, it was upperclassmen guards like Justin Mason and Varez Ward who were on the floor and led the way. That duo combined for 10 points, but it wasn't points they needed at that moment.
Bradley, the consensus all-America two-guard from Tacoma, Wash., and Brown, the in-state dynamo, capitalized on what went on at the other end, pushing the tempo on turnovers and missed shots and finding ways to get to the basket. They combined for 25 points, and hooked up on a lob from Brown to Bradley at full speed during the decisive 17-0 run.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had helped build Texas' first-half big lead with his 3-point shooting -- 12 of his 16 points, all four of his threes, came in a nine-minute outburst that got the Longhorns a double-digit lead. Barnes praised that, and praised Bradley, who got his first collegiate start, for his hard work to get open on offense.
But ...
"We've got depth at the guard spot,'' he said, "but overall, the younger guys don't sustain the intensity over long periods of time. When we take them out of games, they don't understand yet what it means to play two or three of really hard, intense defense.
"They're getting better. They just have to sustain it for a longer period of time.''
Until they do, there are the veterans -- who were the players brought out of the locker room to talk after the game, not coincidentally.
"That's our job,'' said the burly Pittman (15 points, 11 in the second half, plus eight rebounds and three blocks). Those guys really don't know the ropes yet; they're still learning. But they have great talent, and they can do a lot of things that can help us out every night when other guys are still struggling.''
Yes, there were a lot of "buts'' when the freshman class was discussed. The same is going on at Kentucky and has since practice began last month; and at North Carolina, where people are now getting what Roy Williams was talking about in the preseason in the wake of the beating Syracuse handed it last week in New York.
Bradley, Brown and Hamilton will have the chance to stay somewhat in the background for the time being, their shortcomings partly obscured by the responsibilities being taken on by the likes of James, Pittman and Mason. They, and the Texas program overall, can pick and choose when the spotlight goes on them. It will fall on them full-strength eventually -- possibly as early as Tuesday against guard-dominated Pittsburgh, definitely next month when they get North Carolina and Michigan State, and January will be here soon enough.
But as long as it doesn't have to right away, why not live in the shadows when the chance is there? For now, the Texas trio can enjoy being the "others."
